by our circumnavigators, we find, that no kindness could mitigate the ferocity of the rude child of nature. The hospitality of barbarians, like all virtues that proceed not from principle, but from humour and accidental caufes, is of little value. A clearer light than the light of nature is neceffary to give a steady operation to the feelings of humanity.

The idea which christianity has fuggested of the relation in which all men ftand to each other, is wonderfully adapted to promote univerfal hofpitality. When we confider all men as brothers, we fhall naturally receive the ftranger within our gates with cordial kindness, as a relation whom we have never yet seen before, and to whom we wish to display some fignal of our love. It is indeed true, that many who are juftly esteemed worthy perfons, do not reduce this generous idea to practice; and the reafon feems to be, that they fuffer the attachments of domeftic life, and the connections of confanguinity, to engrofs the whole of their affections. Add to this, that the actual exercise of beneficence requires fomething which is lefs in our power than benevolence.

However just the complaints of the mifery of life, yet great occafions for the difplay of beneficence and liberality do not often occur. But there is an hourly neceffity for the little kind offices of mutual civility. At the fame time that ey give pleasure to others, they add to our own happiness and improvement. Habitual acts of kindness have a powerful effect in foftening the heart. An intercourse with polifhed and humane company, tends to improve the difpofition, because it requires a conformity of manners. And it is certain, that a fense of decorum, and of a proper external behaviour, will restrain those whose natural temper would otherwise break out in acrimonious and petulant converfation. Even the affectation of philanthropy will in time contribute to realife it. The pleafure refulting from an act of kindness naturally excites a wish to repeat it; and indeed the general efteem which the character of benevolence procures, is fufficient to induce thofe to wish for it, who act only from the motives of intereft.

As

As we are placed in a world where natural evil abounds, we ought to render it fupportable to each other, as far as human endeavours can avail. All that can add a fweet ingredient to the bitter cup must be infufed. Amid the multitude of thorns, every flower that will grow must be cultivated with care. But neither pomp nor power are of themselves able to alleviate the load of life. The heart requires to be foothed by fympathy. A thousand little attentions from all around us are neceffary to render our days agreeable. The appearance of neglect in any of those with whom we are connected, chills our bofom with chagrin, or kindles the fire of refentment. Nothing therefore seems so likely to ensure happiness, as our mutual endeavours to promote it. Our fingle endeavours, originating and terminating in ourselves, are ufually unfuccefsful. Providence has taken care to secure that intercourfe which is neceffary to the existence of fociety, by rendering it the greatest sweetener of human life.

By reciprocal attentions, we are enabled to become beneficent without expence. A fiile, an affable addrefs, a look of approbation, are often capable of giving a greater pleasure than pecuniary benefits can beftow. The mere participation of the studies and amufements of others, at the fame time that it gratifies ourselves, is often an act of real humanity; because others would not enjoy them without companions. A friendly vifit in a folitary hour, is often a greater act of kindness than a valuable prefent.

It is really matter of furprise, that those who are diftinguished by rank and opulence, should ever be unpopular in their neighbourhood. They muft know the value of popularity, and furely nothing is more eafily obtained by a fuperior. Their notice confers honour; and the afpiring heart of man is always delighted with diftinction. A gracious look from them diffufes happinefs on the lower ranks. But it ufually happens, that an overgrown rich man is not the favourite of a neighbouring country; and it is unfortunate, that pride or inadvertence often prevent men from acting the godlike part of making others happy, even when they might do it without inconvenience to themselves.

No.

No. XCVI. ON THE MERIT OF ILLUSTRIOUS

BIRTH.

T

HERE is fcarcely any truth of which the world has been more frequently reminded by the moralifts, than the unreasonableness of that veneration which is paid to birth. They have been told, that virtue alone is true nobility; but though they have acknowledged the affertion to be founded in reason, they have continued, with uniform perfeverance, in the fame error. The luminous glory of an illuftrious ancestor, feems to have diffused a brilliancy over a long line of defcendants, too opaque of themselves to emit any original irradiations.

Gratitude, which firft raises a benefactor to a diftinguifhed rank in civil honours, is willing to continue its kindness to his immediate offspring. The diftinction is rendered hereditary. This predilection for an ancestor foon leads to the accumulation of honours and poffeffions in his fucceffors; and the incenfe originally offered, because it was deferved, is at laft lavished at the fhrine of opulence, independently of merit.

Subordination is, indeed, effential to fociety. The order of nobles, as hereditary guardians of the laws, is found an useful political establishment; and none feem fo well adapted to fupply it, as they who have been raised to eminence by their ancestors, and who poffels a territorial patrimony in the land which they are to protect. All that is contended for is, that the recommendation of birth may not fet afide or depreciate real merit, the praise of learning, and the intrinfic value of virtuous exertions.

It is a remarkable circumftance in the hiftory of mankind, that fome of the best books have been written, and fome of the greatest atchievements performed, by those whofe origin was truly plebeian. The politeit and genteeleft books, whether the fentiments or the

D 5

ftyle

ftyle be confidered, have been produced by flaves, or the defcendants of flaves. Horace, Phædrus, and Terence, wrote in a style which must have been the ftandard of a court, to an intercourfe with which they were, however, by no means entitled by their extraction. The founders of the moft diftinguished families emerged from the middle and the lower claffes, by the fuperior vigour of their natural abilities, or by extraordinary efforts, affifted by fortune. And unless the adventitious circumftances of wealth and civil honours can effect a change in the conftituent principles of the mind and body, there is certainly no real fuperiority to be derived in a boafted pedigree of Tudors and Plantagenets.

And yet there have appeared flatterers who have indirectly fuggefted, that the minds of the nobility feem to be caft in a finer mould, and to have an elegance inherent in their original conftitution. According to this hypothefis, we muft go on to fuppofe, that the mind of a commoner, exalted to the higher order of fenators, catches this elegance by the contagion of in-. vifible effluvia. On his creation he undergoes a kind of new birth, and puts off the exuvia which encumbered and degraded him in the lower regions. Thus are all the occult perfections of noble blood to be infufed by the mandate of a monarch. But no, faid Maximilian to a man who asked to be ennobled by him, though I can give you riches and a title, I cannot make

noble.

you

In truth, there is many a nobleman, according to the genuine idea of nobility, even at the loom, at the plough, and in the fhop; and many more in the middle ranks of mixed fociety. This genuine idea contains in it generofity, courage, fpirit, and benevolence, the qualities of a warin and open heart, totally unconnected with the accidental advantages of riches and honour; and many an English failor has poffeffed more of the real hero than a lord of the admiralty.

If indeed there is any real difference in the quality of their blood, the advantage is probably on the fide of the inferior claffes. Their indigence and their manual employments require temperance and exercife, the beft

purifiers

purifiers of the animal juices. But the indolence which wealth excuses, and the pleasures which fashionable life admits without reftraint, have a natural tendency to vitiate the body as well as the mind. And among the many privileges inherited by him who boafts nobility in his veins, he commonly receives the feeds of the moft painful and the impureft difeafes. He difplays, indeed, a coronet on his coat of arms, and he has a long pedigree to perufe with fecret fatisfaction; but he has often a gout or a fcrophula, which makes him with to exchange every drop derived from his Norman anceftors, for the pure tide that warms a peasant's bofom.

The spirit of freedom, moral, mental, and political, which prevails in England, precludes that unreasonable attachment to birth, which in the countries of defpotifm, tends to elevate the noble to a rank fuperior to humanity. In our neighbour's land, the region of external elegance united with real meannefs, the implicit veneration paid to birth, adds to the weight of legal oppreffion. A Frenchman of the plebeian order attends to a Count or a Marquis with all the filent fubmiffion of idolatry; on the contrary, there is no doubt but that an Englith Gondolier would box with the best Lord in the land, if he were affronted by him, without the leaft regard for his ftar and ribbon. It would indeed be an additional pleasure to the natural delight of conqueft, to have bruifed a puny Lord. Even the more refined and polifhed do not idolife illuftrious birth. In truth, wealth appears to be the object of more univerfal veneration. Noble blood and noble titles, without an eftate to fupport them, meet with great compaffion indeed, but with little refpect;: nor is the man who has raifed himself to eminence, and who behaves well in it, neglected and defpised because he derives no luftre from his forefathers. In a commercial country, where gain is the general object, they who have been moft fuccefsful in its purfuit will be revered by many, whatever was their origin. In France, where honour is purfued from the monarch to the cleanfer of a jakes, the diftinction of birth, even with extreme poverty, is enviable.

The